Traffic grows to the point of overwelming the train dispatcher on the Atlantic Shoals Railway
Recently the owner of the Atlantic Shoals Railway conducted a special OP session with a select group of very qualified people. The whole idea was to operate with train orders and form “A” clearance forms. Within ten minutes of the start of the session the train dispatcher was totally overwhelmed and the railroad came to a full stop! It seems that the amount of traffic generated on the Shoals is to heavy for form “19”s. A traffic control system is needed (maybe). Management, frugal as ever, has decided to continue operating as before with “verbal permission” and operator responsibility to clear superior trains.
The lesson learned from this experiment seems to be, run trains NOT PAPER. After abandonment of the train order idea the Shoals ran smoothly and more then thirty trains, including light moves, flowed over the system. More importantly everyone had fun, including the train dispatcher.
Carl